In nursing care, there is a case where a care-receiver is moved from a bed into a wheelchair or a case where the care-receiver is moved from the wheelchair onto the bed. The care-receiver indicates for example, a bedridden aged person or an ailing person. Such movement is difficult and there is a possibility that a care worker suffers from lumbar pain at the time of the movement. Thus, a bed device in which a part of the bed is dividable and the part can be changed to a wheel chair is proposed (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 5-51330).
FIG. 16 is a perspective view of a conventional bed device 10. As shown in FIG. 16, abed surface of the bed device 10 is composed of three plates of a side bed plate 2, a center bed plate 3, and a side bed plate 4. In order to form the bed surface, there is a need for moving the center bed plate 3 of a wheelchair 5 in a flat posture to a space 3a between the side bed plate 2 and the side bed plate 4 as shown in FIG. 16. Therefore, with a rotation mechanism 7, by firstly rotating an arm 8 in the arrow 7a direction about a rotation center of the rotation mechanism, the care worker brings the side bed plate 4 fixed to the arm 8 up to the upper side of a bed main body 1.
The care worker moves the wheelchair 5 on which the care-receiver rides to the space 3a in a state that the side bed plate 4 is brought up to the upper side of the bed main body 1. After the wheelchair 5 is moved to the space 3a, when the side bed plate 4 is returned to the original position, the bed surface is composed of the side bed plates 2, 4 and the center bed plate 3. In such a way, the care-receiver can be easily moved from the wheelchair 5 to the bed device 10. By performing the procedure reverse to the above description, the care-receiver can be easily moved from the bed device 10 to the wheelchair 5.
It should be noted that at the time of coupling the wheelchair 5 to the bed main body portion 1, a pair of rails 9 of the wheelchair 5 utilized as armrests are shifted into insertion holes 9a, 9b of the bed main body portion 1 from the wheelchair 5 and utilized as side rails for the bed device 10.
In such a way, by using the bed device 10 having the wheelchair 5 as a part thereof, labor of the care worker to move the care-receiver between the wheelchair 5 and the bed main body 1 can be reduced.